Ickey shuffle: Panthers didn’t expect to draft Ekwonu, but should be glad they did

The Carolina Panthers pulled off an Ickey Shuffle on Thursday night, getting their favorite offensive tackle in the NFL draft and a Charlotte native to boot.

Ikem “Ickey” Ekwonu is a 6-foot-4, 320-pound beast of an offensive lineman who grew up in Charlotte, played in high school at Providence Day and starred at N.C. State. It doesn’t get much more local than that.

The Panthers thought he would be gone long before they picked at No. 6. But instead, the selection of five consecutive defensive players began the night. That meant that Carolina had its choice of any offensive tackle — or any other offensive player, for that matter — with No. 6.

“Honestly, it’s just crazy,” Ekwonu said after the draft in his press conference with local media. “Every step of my football journey, I’ve been in North Carolina.”

This sort of thing has happened before: Julius Peppers played in high school in N.C., played in college at North Carolina and then was drafted No. 2 overall by the Panthers in 2002. If Ekwonu works out anywhere nearly as well as Peppers did, the Panthers just found themselves a star.

Was it a good pick? I think so. While I would have liked the Panthers to have taken Liberty quarterback Malik Willis and still think Carolina needs the “Wow” factor that Willis would have brought, Ekwonu is a far safer pick and should start immediately.

“This is the best-case scenario for us,” Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer said, and he and coach Matt Rhule both looked like they were having a hard time not jumping up and down on the table about Ekwonu falling to them.

“This is a special day for us,” Rhule said. “We’re trying to be cool, calm and collected, but we’re pretty fired up.”

Ekwonu’s selection may be it for the Panthers until Saturday. As of now, they don’t have a selection in the second or third rounds to be conducted Friday, although they will try to trade their way into it.

It also means that the team still may add a quarterback, either through a mid-round pick or by making a trade for a veteran like Baker Mayfield or Jimmy Garoppolo.

But it seems more likely that the Panthers are going to try to roll with Sam Darnold as their starter, hoping that new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo can improve his decision-making. New offensive line coach James Campen — a coach that owner David Tepper is particularly high on — will be entrusted to take Ekwonu, the free-agent acquisitions and returnees Taylor Moton and Brady Christensen and meld them into something other than the disaster the line was a year ago during Carolina’s 5-12 season.

Ekwonu’s Charlotte history makes for a nice story. He talked easily about his favorite Charlotte restaurants with reporters Thursday night. He’s attended Panther games before. His roots are deep.

But the same could be said about former Panthers quarterback Will Grier, who had a great Charlotte backstory, got drafted by the hometown team and then made no impact before Carolina released him in 2021. A backstory only takes you so far; after that, you have to win some games.

The Panthers are confident that Ekwonu can do that. And if you watch his highlights, you’d be confident, too. He should get an endorsement for maple syrup with the Panthers, because he specializes in pancake blocks. A former wrestler, he’s good in space and he’s good in close quarters. Picking him makes all sorts of sense.

“He’s a tone-setter,” Fitterer said of Ekwonu.

The GM said, “there wasn’t a lot of action on the clock” when the Panthers had their pick. The trade talk, Fitterer said, mainly had circulated around the two cornerbacks who ended up going in the top four picks.

At that point, the Panthers just had to choose. And they stayed inside the “704” area code to it, with a player who has a chance to become a star.

This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 10:10 PM.

Scott Fowler

The Charlotte Observer

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Columnist Scott Fowler has written for The Charlotte Observer since 1994 and has earned 26 APSE awards for his sportswriting. He hosted The Observer’s podcast “Carruth,” which Sports Illustrated once named “Podcast of the Year.” Fowler also conceived and hosted the online series and podcast “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” which featured 1-on-1 interviews with NC and SC sports icons and was turned into a book. He occasionally writes about non-sports subjects, such as the 5-part series “9/11/74,” which chronicled the forgotten plane crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 in Charlotte on Sept. 11, 1974. Support my work with a digital subscription